Lady Spartans advance with win over Judge
| Coach Katie Hreinson speaks with runner Leslee Lake at first base. |
The Emery High Lady Spartans won their first post-season game in quite awhile with an 8-3 victory over the Judge Memorial Catholic High School Bulldogs last Saturday at Uintah High School. Emery will now advance to the 3-A State tournament at the Valley Complex in Taylorsville this Thursday. Emery will play Uintah High School at 5:30 p.m. to start the three-day affair. The Valley complex is located at approximately 5100 South and 2700 West across from Taylorsville High School.
Emery scored a run in the first inning to take the early lead at 1-0. Emery scored two more runs in the second inning to lead 3-0. Three Emery errors in the fourth inning allowed Judge to tie the score at 3-3. Emery quickly responded with five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to lead 8-3 and then the Spartans closed out the game with good defense.
While the theme for the softball team all season has been 24 girls and four coaches working together to win, there were several standout performances this day. Leslee Lake pitched an outstanding game inspite of the home plate umpire having a very small strike zone. The umpire called it the same for both teams but if it wasn’t right down the middle it wasn’t a strike. Leslee is very good at hitting the corners and moving the ball around. Leslee did well even though she was limited on what she could do.
Jalee Jensen, Emery’s leadoff batter, scored twice, singled twice, walked once and also had a double that scored a runner to lead the Emery offense. Bailey Kay hit a homerun in the fourth inning deep over the centerfield fence for the last runs of the game for Emery. Whitney Allen scored a run after walking, had a single and also had a double.
For region 8, Juan Diego joined Emery in winning their game Saturday. North Sanpete lost their first game and then won their second game of the day while the Carbon Dino’s lost both of their games last Saturday. North Sanpete and Juan Diego will also play at the tournament this week.
In the first inning, Jalee walked, stole second base and scored on a Leslee Lake single into centerfield. In the second inning, Whitney walked to start the inning. After two Emery outs, Keera Allred singled and both Whitney and Keera scored on Jalee’s double to the left centerfield fence. Adriane Weihing then walked and the inning was over when the Judge shortstop caught a shot off the bat of Chelsea Skinner.
In the fourth inning for Judge, the first two batters grounded out to the Emery pitcher. The next batter had an infield single and then the next batter got on base due an Emery error. After a soft single behind first base, another Emery error let another batter get on base and by the time it was over Judge had scored three runs to tie the score.
Emery responded right back and proved to themselves that they have what it takes to be a championship team. In their half of the fourth inning, Markette Tanner led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Keera Allred. Jalee singled and scored Markette, Adriane Weihing singled to advance Jalee to third base. Jalee scored on a Chelsea Skinner single and then everybody scored on Bailey Kay’s homerun shot. Whitney Allen followed the homer with a double off the left centerfield fence but did not score.
Emery had 11 base hits in the game while Judge had five base hits. Emery also got four walks while Judge got a single walk.
With the state tournament being a true double elimination affair, Emery will now play until they win it all or until they lose two. They do not expect to lose two. Good luck Lady Spartans.